For a minute or two, there was some glimmer of hope that YouTube would allow users to upload their videos in HD. Not so, Silicon Alley Insider clarifies. But while chaos reigned in high-definition for a few moments, oft-naked Vimeo founder and HD-video advocate Jakob Lodwick took the opportunity to take a few shots at YouTube.
YouTube founder Steve Chen, on the Oprah show, recites the same old tale he and Chad Hurley have been trained to give about how YouTube got his start: Chen threw a dinner party, friends filmed each other with videocameras, and then realized the videos were hard to share. What the two didn't tell Oprah: YouTube's third cofounder, Jawed Karim, claims the dinner party never happened, and he came up with the idea for a video-sharing site.
YouTube cofounders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen went on Oprah today. Most of it was eminently skippable pap, the kind Hurley and Chen have been trained by Google PR to recite. But the money shot? Well, it was when Winfrey, who's worth $1.5 billion, asked Hurley and Chen whether Google's $1.65 billion purchase of YouTube had changed their lives. Oh, no, the pair demurred. They don't think about money. They were much too busy working on new features. And going on Oprah.
Oprah Winfrey is launching her own YouTube channel. It will have clips and behind-the-scenes footage from her show. The unveiling will occur November 6 on the Oprah show along with YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, Tyson the skateboarding dog and Judson Laipply, the "Evolution of Dance" guy. That'll be a fun show to watch. Hope someone posts it on YouTube.
I'm impressed that America's Funniest Home Videos is still on the air. Especially after Chad Hurley & Co. turned the idea behind the TV show into a $1.65 billion payday from Google. Any gaffe caught on video — by, say, a Miss Teen USA candidate — is instantly available to millions on YouTube, where it can, over time, draw a much bigger audience than the venerable broadcast video roundup. Web-traffic tracker Compete has a nifty map, reproduced after the jump, illustrating the spread of Miss Teen South Carolina's implosion on national television. It's natural for Compete to do a geographic analysis, considering that the pageant contestant's cartographic failings were so publicly on display in the clip, which has now been viewed over 17 million times. If you've been hiding under a rock and somehow missed it the first time, the video is after the jump as well.
Pictured this morning on the TechCrunch40 stage, four men worth a total of a kajillion dollars or something along those lines. From left, Yahoo founder David Filo, wearing the safe and unimaginative Silicon Valley uniform, YouTube cofounder Chad Hurley in his jeans-and-jacket casual yuppie attire, Ning and Netscape cofounder Marc Andreessen, who goes for the novel tracksuit and khakis combo, and Sequoia Capital uber-investor Michael Moritz. Oh, Michael. He's Welsh, so he's always dressed a bit more snappily than the normal tech layperson, which is a good thing. But what on earth is he doing with his shoes? Hoping to change into slippers and a cardigan like a powerful Mr. Rogers? Or just nervously squirming in his chair before the crowd? VCs already have a reputation as ADD-addled fidgeters, this isn't going to help. (Photo by jspepper)
E-commerce sites are now adding video, as the infomercial enters the age of YouTube. What amuses us about this trend is that it was an early business model, since abandoned, that YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen entertained for their online-video startup. Having previously worked for eBay, Hurley and Chen briefly conceived of YouTube as a tool for embedding videos in online auctions. It's gone from far-out idea to standard practice in the cottage industry for selling-on-eBay tips.
You won't learn anything new from watching YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen gab on the "Today Show." But the clip is worth watching for this sight alone: the founders of an online-video site sold for $1.65 billion, still so fundamentally uncomfortable with the medium that no amount of coaching can make them anything besides stiff and uncomfortable in front of a camera.
Eric Savitz goes through Federal Election Committee filings, picks out the top political contributors in Silicon Valley. Barack Obama gets some big names: Sequoia Capital VC Michael Moritz, Google backer Ram Shriram, and YouTube founder Chad Hurley all gave to his campaign. Sadly, no information on Ron Paul supporters. [Barrons]
Glossy music magazine Blender has named Apple CEO Steve Jobs to the top of the Powergeek 25, its list of the top 25 people who influence online music. We don't object to the content of the list, but we do object to the title. His Steveness is no geek! And neither are flashy MySpace founders Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson nor suave Youtubers Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. The only recognizable geek on there is Bram Cohen of BitTorrent, at number 19. The rest are either techies, hipsters, or businesspeople. Someone at Blender should read up on their definitions.
As filed with the SEC, Youtube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen — along with a crowd of other investors — plan to sell off a huge chunk of the Google stock acquired when Youtube was purchased by the search corp. The numbers are indeed sweet: based on current stock prices, Hurley's shares are worth $345 million plus, and eligible bachelor Chen's $326 million plus. But who's the real big winner?
NICK DOUGLAS — While dust gathers on our old VHS copies of Pirates of Silicon Valley (for us, Noah Wyle's career hit its high point with his role as Steve Jobs), it's time to cast the sequel. Starring the Daily Show's Demetri Martin as Digg founder Kevin Rose, Jason Bateman as Diggnation co-host Alex Albrecht and Rush Limbaugh as John C. Dvorak, the show also includes stars playing Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch, Merlin Mann, and Google's Marissa Mayer.
A dynamic duo is more likely to found a hit company than a lone gunman. Hewlett and Packard, Yahoo's David Filo and Jerry Yang, Google's Sergey Brin and Larry Page, — even Steve Jobs had his Steve Wozniak. The character of the company, then, lies not in one personality but the relationship between two. For YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, that relationship, according to Fortune, is the classic nerd-and-businessman pair.
Readers sent in some great tips over the past 24 hours. Tipster #1 allays our fears that TV-listing startup MeeVee is blowing its cash on signage:
Everyone in the media acts giddy over YouTube — it's the center of our youth's social lives! They'll build New Media around it! — and the Chronicle has taken the love up an extra notch.
The heads of Coke, Google, News Corp, Nike, Time Warner, and other moguls flew to Sun Valley, Idaho this week for an invitation-only retreat. Joining them were the founders of YouTube — hot properties to be sure, but terribly fresh-faced for this crowd.
